Our community needs help via Patreon donations!

[Antvasima]

Hello.

As many of you likely know, we have launched a Patreon subscription service, so our members can donate to help keep our forum sufficiently financed to continue, and would greatly appreciate help from our community and visitors who are willing to help us out.

To become an active supporter of our community, you should go to https://www.patreon.com/vsbattles and become a monthly member. After we have a sufficiently established presence at Patreon, we will also get the ability to accept less expensive yearly subscriptions.

I have been told that we currently only receive roughly 21 Euros per month in Patreon donations, and that, despite our advertisements, with all of our running costs for this forum combined, we need roughly 250 Euros per month to become financially sustainable, so it would be really great if at least a few dozen of our up to 236,000 monthly forum visitors, who appreciate our extreme efforts to produce as high-quality content as we are able, would be willing and able to become supporters for us. Extremely big thanks for any help in this regard.

To show our appreciation for the people with member accounts who help our community in this manner, they will receive an advertisement-free experience when browsing vsbattles.com as long as they continue to support us, and they will also receive personal blue "Supporter" badges below their usernames, similar to the ones for our staff members

In order to do so, at Patreon, please choose one of the monthly subscription/membership tiers (either 2 Euros for a "Supporter" badge, 5 Euros for a "Super Supporter" badge, or 10 Euros for an "Ultra Supporter" badge) and use the exact same username as you use in the VS Battles forum.

We will not receive any personal information as long as you use an anonymous email address as your contact information combined with the same username that you use here, and only see that along with your membership tier. If you already have a Patreon account with your regular email address or real name, the account in question can easily be updated to use anonymous alternatives before you become a supporter for us.

If Patreon itself (we have not added this feature) asks you if you want to provide your real name and home address to us (that happened to me once), simply opt out of that part.

If you want to support us above this to get us financially sustainable quicker, you are of course always welcome to make a larger donation, but be careful to not pay more money than you can afford.

For those who cannot support us financially, we of course appreciate if you accept our advertisements and contribute to the financing of our forum in that way instead.

Massive thanks in advance for any help.

 

[TheRustyOne]

I have made a payment.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you very much for the help. It is extremely appreciated. I have informed AKM sama that you and Muchacho_mrm need to get Super Supporter badges.

Also, if we ever forget to update your monthly Supporter badges, please tell us about it here, and we will fix it. There is just an awful lot of work to keep track of.

 

[JohnConquest1]

I have also made a payment.

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

I also hope others are able to support the forum.

 

[Propellus]

Made the payment

 

[Antvasima]

I have also made a payment.

Made the payment

Thank you very much for the help. It is extremely appreciated. I will inform AKM sama, so you get your badges.

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

Could I get ultra supporter sticker for doing 10 dollars?

 

[Antvasima]

I suppose that we could probably set that up, but I need to ask my friend who owns this forum to set it up via Patreon and our forum system manager to add an extra advertisement-free subscription sticker in this forum.

 

[Antvasima]

Also, thanks a lot for your generosity.

 

[Kiryu-MG3]

What would happen if the forum doesn't reach the 250 Euros goal each month?

 

[Antvasima]

Well, my friend who owns the forum will have to pay the difference out of his own pocket every month. He has very charitably been willing to do so so far, but there are no guarantees that he will continue to do so forever, so I would much prefer if we can balance things out, especially given the ongoing economic recession.

 

[Fikriskps]

Well, my friend who owns the forum will have to pay the difference out of his own pocket every month. He has very charitably been willing to do so so far, but there are no guarantees that he will continue to do so forever, so I would much prefer if we can balance things out, especially given the ongoing economic recession.

I Wanted to donate but Patreon Doesnt Allowed My Debit Card To Use

 

[Antvasima]

Okay. That is unfortunate, but thanks for trying. Paypal accounts work great for Patreon though.

 

[Lightning_XXI]

I hope we reach that value, I wish I could donate a separated value outside my sub, but unfortunately I can't

 

[Antvasima]

No problem at all. You are helping out as well as you are able.

 

[KLOL506]

I'd try to pay if I could, but then again, I live in Bangladesh. PayPal is illegal here ATM and I don't think Patreon accepts Bangladeshi credit cards let alone debit cards. No donations allowed either, if I try those, the government might arrest me and erase me from existence, and I'm not saying this lightheartedly.

 

[Antvasima]

Yes. Those are obviously extremely valid reasons, and as I have stated previously, I am very sorry that you and other members here from all over the world have to be oppressed by either your governments or local extremists. The rest of us should consider ourselves very lucky to not have to live under such circumstances.

 

[Antvasima]

The owner of this forum just asked me to mention that he has lost 12,000 Euros so far from keeping it alive, and that he would like to gradually reduce that amount if possible.

 

[KLOL506]

Damn, didn't expect shit to go down this bad. We really are in a rut, huh.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, my friend is reasonably well off, so he can technically afford it, and I doubt that he will shut us down, but it is still an ongoing drain on his resources, so it is by far best to try to significantly lessen the problem.

 

[Nehz_XZX]

The owner of this forum just asked me to mention that he has lost 12,000 Euros so far from keeping it alive, and that he would like to gradually reduce that amount if possible.

That does sound like a bad situation. I would help out with this If I had my own stable income source but since this is currently not the case for me as a student it would feel financially irresponsible to me if I did that.

 

[Antvasima]

Yes, that is obviously no problem. I hope that our non-member visitors will also be willing to donate to support our work.

 

[First_Witch]

The owner of this forum just asked me to mention that he has lost 12,000 Euros so far from keeping it alive, and that he would like to gradually reduce that amount if possible.

WHAT, are you kidding me, 12,000?? Over the course of what, 2- max 3 years top? Thats a obscene amount of money for something that will never pay back

 

[Antvasima]

Well, running costs and a good system manager cost money, and we also lost a lot more money than currently before we managed to set up our advertisements.

I have mentioned to Fandom that it would be great if we would be allowed to link to our Patreon subscription page via the front page of our wiki, but it has not been possible to make an exception in that regard so far. They will contact me again if something changes though.

 

[Antvasima]

We have now added a 10 Euros "Ultra Supporter" monthly subscription badge for those who can afford it.

 

[Antvasima]

We have now added a 10 Euros "Ultra Supporter" monthly subscription badge for those who can afford it.

@TheUnshakableOne

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

@TheUnshakableOne

Oh! Thank you. Once I get back from work I'll submit to it.

Thank you!

 

[Antvasima]

No problem. Thank you extremely for your generosity.

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

PayPal made the process faster. I did it just now. The 11th patron.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you very much for the help. I will inform AKM about it, so you get your badge.

 

[Antvasima]

@TheUnshakableOne

Please update your Patreon username to TheUnshakableOne instead, as I will most likely forget who will make the donations in coming months otherwise.

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

@TheUnshakableOne

Please update your Patreon username to TheUnshakableOne instead, as I will most likely forget who will make the donations in coming months otherwise.

I edited my profile and changed my displayed name.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you. It is very appreciated.

 

[JnSteHar002]

Got it in

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you very much for helping out. I will tell AKM sama about it.

However, you will need to change your Patreon username to the same one that you use here, or we will not be able to keep track of who to give a subscription to.

@StorytellingDemonKing was also given an Ultra Supporter subscription. Massive thanks to him for helping out so much.

 

[Agnaa]

I'd like to suggest a few potential perks for supporting the forum, since many options don't seem properly explored.

Since I'm not sure exactly how customizable this forum is, these will mostly be "things that staff members have access to that don't run much risk".

• The ability to have slightly longer signatures.
• The ability to have images in signatures.
• The ability to have underscores removed from one's username.
• The ability to have a title set (akin to Ant's "Maintenance worker" one).
• Animated profile pictures could be locked behind it.

Some more speculative ideas would be

• The ability to add custom emoticons.
• The ability to add custom reactions.
• The ability to feature one thread a month (matches/content revision threads or threads referencing calcs they want feedback on).

For any parts of these that sound risky, they'd be implemented by staff, who can check for unwanted uses.

 

[PrinceofPein]

Also if there is a way to add cryptocurrencies as part of payment options, as I am trying to support financially but I’m unable to due to where I’m from, but if crypto is added, then it’s easy to support from almost any part of the world.

 

[Antvasima]

I'd like to suggest a few potential perks for supporting the forum, since many options don't seem properly explored.

Since I'm not sure exactly how customizable this forum is, these will mostly be "things that staff members have access to that don't run much risk".

• The ability to have slightly longer signatures.
• The ability to have images in signatures.
• The ability to have underscores removed from one's username.
• The ability to have a title set (akin to Ant's "Maintenance worker" one).
• Animated profile pictures could be locked behind it.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Slightly longer signatures seems like a good idea, but images in signatures might turn too continuously distracting and spammy for other members, even if the risk for outright offensive ones seems low, so I am not sure either way about the second option, but if it would cover our expenses much better I suppose that it might be fine.

Underscores in usernames does not really seem like something our members would consider a problem, and inconsistently removing them would turn it harder to summon knowledgeable members for content revision threads.

Getting the ability to set a personal description text is probably a good idea.

It is already possible to add animated user avatar images, but they need to fit the allowed XenForo size. I can ask our system manager about if we can increase the allowed size for paying members though.

Some more speculative ideas would be

• The ability to add custom emoticons.
• The ability to add custom reactions.
• The ability to feature one thread a month (matches/content revision threads or threads referencing calcs they want feedback on).

For any parts of these that sound risky, they'd be implemented by staff, who can check for unwanted uses.

Please explain what you mean with custom emoticons. I thought that we already have quite a lot of them to select from. If you mean adding new ones to our list that is available for all members, that seems a bit risky, if offensive or copyrighted images are uploaded.

Custom reactions could turn into a problem, if negative ones that spread toxicity are used for example.

Well, we don't have a feature function, but maybe we could give our paying members/supporters the right to call for a favour once a month (but not more than that) by asking our administrators to check for all of the listed currently active knowledgeable members for the verses relevant for different content revision threads, and then summon them to participate there? Or just send a notification to a total of 4-5 thread moderators and administrators along with helping out with evaluating the thread themselves if there are almost no knowledgeable members or verse supporters listed. However, the evaluations of whether or not a revision is valid to apply should obviously still be fair and matter of fact, with no special treatment in this regard.

Maybe we could structure it something like this?

2 USD/Month Supporters: No displayed advertisements.

5 USD/Month Super Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal animated user avatar images.

10 USD/Month Ultra Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature.

20 USD/Month Tier 0 Supporters/Deluxe Supporters (Just suggested titles. Constructive suggestions are obviously welcome.): No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature. Making 1 request per month in a pinned wiki management forum request thread for guaranteed staff evaluations of content revision discussion threads, but only for threads that the Deluxe Members have created themselves, and only evaluated in a normal manner, not necessarily with any favourable outcomes.

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

Perhaps add in a limited number of username changes in a 6 month or more time period? Or cap it at 3 changes? Idk if that sounds impactful or useful.

 

[Antvasima]

That would be far too confusing. My apologies.

 

[Dereck03]

I don't think it's a good idea, since the username must be the same as in the wiki, and if someone has already changed the username previously they can't do it more than 1 time. And the worst thing would be that it would be difficult to recognize the users. And it would be too confusing.

 

[Lightning_XXI]

Ahhh that's a really interesting idea

Personally liked having the option to set a custom title under the username

 

[Mr._Bambu]

I think it would be a bad idea to "sell" evaluations. I know we need donations. I get that. I don't know how bad the situation is, as of all of this, but that puts our legitimacy into question. Profile customization options are an excellent idea, ditto for signatures- I've seen people lamenting that only AKM has an image. But I'd be against giving out evaluations, any more than we already do, of course. Equal access for all.

 

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

I like the general concept (even if I won't be able to give any money myself for quite a while), but I do agree with Bambu that selling evaluations is a bad look. Even then, how would this even work? How would staff get chosen to evaluate these threads? Does it need to be your own thread, or can it be someone else's thread that you're just interested in? How would we keep track of who's used up their monthly evaluations?

Also, are animated banners currently possible? If not, that could be another idea for supporter benefits. Maybe also a label like what staff and supporters get, except it can be changed to say whatever the supporter wants (within reason, of course).

 

[Dereck03]

Also, are animated banners currently possible?

Yeah, they are possible, jut look at mine.

 

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

Yeah, they are possible, jut look at mine.

Oh cool, didn't know that.

 

[Antvasima]

I think it would be a bad idea to "sell" evaluations. I know we need donations. I get that. I don't know how bad the situation is, as of all of this, but that puts our legitimacy into question. Profile customization options are an excellent idea, ditto for signatures- I've seen people lamenting that only AKM has an image. But I'd be against giving out evaluations, any more than we already do, of course. Equal access for all.

I obviously agree with your assessment in principle, but we really need the financing, and the evaluated threads would also obviously not have any greater than normal guarantees to be accepted.

I like the general concept (even if I won't be able to give any money myself for quite a while), but I do agree with Bambu that selling evaluations is a bad look. Even then, how would this even work? How would staff get chosen to evaluate these threads? Does it need to be your own thread, or can it be someone else's thread that you're just interested in? How would we keep track of who's used up their monthly evaluations?

I was thinking that we could start a wiki management thread for this that our administrators and thread moderators should subscribe to, and that the submitted requests would be for Deluxe Members' own content revision threads only.

 

[Agnaa]

Please explain what you mean with custom emoticons. I thought that we already have quite a lot of them to select from. If you mean adding new ones to our list that is available for all members, that seems a bit risky, if offensive or copyrighted images are uploaded.

Yeah, adding one new one available for all members, for as long as that person is pledged. Due to the one-off nature, a staff member could evaluate them before adding it (rather than giving the user free reign to upload as many as they want).

Custom reactions could turn into a problem, if negative ones that spread toxicity are used for example.

I'd have a similar idea here; only allow positive, unoffensive custom reactions to be added. But I do understand if you still see a risk of even positive reactions being used in an ironic and negative way.

Well, we don't have a feature function

I was thinking in this section, since we don't seem to add them too often (three of the four there have been around for almost/over a year).

but that puts our legitimacy into question.

I don't have this concern, since a response is sold, not a positive/negative one, but I am concerned about how practical it would be to get staff members to actually do that. People should really already be able to ask staff members for evaluations and get them.

Maybe we could structure it something like this?

Yeah, in general that sort of thing. I'm not super fussed about the specifics.

 

[Antvasima]

Please explain what you mean with custom emoticons. I thought that we already have quite a lot of them to select from. If you mean adding new ones to our list that is available for all members, that seems a bit risky, if offensive or copyrighted images are uploaded.

Yeah, adding one new one available for all members, for as long as that person is pledged. Due to the one-off nature, a staff member could evaluate them before adding it (rather than giving the user free reign to upload as many as they want).

My apologies, but I do not think that seems realistic to manage practically. XenForo has no such evaluation function that I know of, and I am the only Super Administrator of this forum who is active in it, rather than doing strictly administrative tasks, and I am already overworked while trying to also engage in some to me very important spiritual and physical self-development.

Custom reactions could turn into a problem, if negative ones that spread toxicity are used for example.

I'd have a similar idea here; only allow positive, unoffensive custom reactions to be added. But I do understand if you still see a risk of even positive reactions being used in an ironic and negative way.

Well, there is no practical way to control such a feature efficiently for me either.

Well, we don't have a feature function

I was thinking in this section, since we don't seem to add them too often (three of the four there have been around for almost/over a year).

Only about 5 or 6 of them can be shown at a time that I know of, and I much prefer if the room is taken up by crucial information threads for our community as a whole.

but that puts our legitimacy into question.

I don't have this concern, since a response is sold, not a positive/negative one, but I am concerned about how practical it would be to get staff members to actually do that. People should really already be able to ask staff members for evaluations and get them.

Our staff does not seem to have the time to evaluate most current content revision threads, and as I said above, an official wiki management thread that all of our administrators and thread moderators subscribe to might be an idea for this purpose.

Maybe we could structure it something like this?

Yeah, in general that sort of thing. I'm not super fussed about the specifics.

Okay.

 

[Agnaa]

and I am the only Super Administrator of this forum who is active in it, rather than doing strictly administrative tasks, and I am already overworked while trying to also engage in some to me very important spiritual and physical self-development.

Are there any Bureaucrats/Administrators who could get similar privileges (or lesser forms of it, so that they can only add emoticons/reactions) that would have the time and trust available for something like that? I don't think that sort of thing's without precedent; iirc AKM ran staff recruitment drives and changed the name colours for staff members, despite just being an Administrator at the time, he had some duties beyond that.

If not, that's understandable.

Only about 5 or 6 of them can be shown at a time that I know of, and I much prefer if the room is taken up by crucial information threads for our community as a whole.

Hmm, this is stretching the idea a bit, but it could use the blue announcements feature, or simply be one monthly megathread for that sort of thing so that it only takes up one spot.

But again, if that's just stretching it too much to fit, that idea could be abandoned.

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

I don't think Admins can change tags for the Xenforo forum, only on the wiki. Only Bureaucrats can do it. Super Mods can look up the approval queue for new users and also see the report queue, but that's about all I know that they exceed regular Admins at.

 

[Agnaa]

I mean to say that those settings should be configurable. I'd expect, from my knowledge of forums, that one would be able to make "Super Moderator"s able to add custom emoticons/reactions.

 

[Antvasima]

Only Super Administrators have access to those settings, and I don't mess around with anything complicated out of very valid fear of completely messing up our forum structure, and we pay our system administrator when he performs such tasks for us.

 

[AKM sama]

I think it's an interesting idea.

• The ability to have slightly longer signatures.
• The ability to have a title set (akin to Ant's "Maintenance worker" one).
• Animated profile pictures could be locked behind it.

I think these are easily workable solutions.

• The ability to have images in signatures.
• The ability to feature one thread a month (matches/content revision threads or threads referencing calcs they want feedback on).

I am undecided about these two. If we are giving the ability to have images, we need to strictly define a size so that it doesn't get spammy with big images. The ability to feature/highlight one thread could probably lead to misuse and it could be seen as inappropriate.

 

[Agnaa]

Hmm, I may have been assuming capabilities that aren't actually there. I suspected that forums could detect the size of embedded images, and limit them in signatures to a reasonable size, but I'm not 100% certain that that's possible with the software used here.

 

[Antvasima]

2 USD/Month Supporters: No displayed advertisements.

5 USD/Month Super Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal animated user avatar images.

10 USD/Month Ultra Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature.

20 USD/Month Deluxe Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature. Making 1 request per month in a pinned wiki management forum request thread for guaranteed staff evaluations of content revision discussion threads, but only for threads that the Deluxe Members have created themselves, and only evaluated in a normal manner, not necessarily with any favourable outcomes.

I updated the suggested benefits list for this.

I think that we could create a pinned wiki management forum request thread that is only available for Deluxe Supporters once a month, and only for evaluating threads that they created themselves.

Our administrators and thread moderators will have to subscribe to the request thread in question. They can give thumbs up to the request messages that have been responded to already.

Again, we have already lost 12,000 Euros during 2 years. We need to do what we can to at least break even so we do not have to eventually shut down.

 

[TheUnshakableOne]

II dunno how feasible this is, or how well liked it is but here are some ideas i had..

I was thinking of something like a "level up" system and an "Exp bar"

I was thinking on how this would work...

on our profiles here on the forum where you click your username and a pull down tab comes out that says "your account" and "bookmarks."

If you click on your username it takes you too your own page.

On that big long blue bar that stretches across the bottom where we got 4 classifictions called "profile post" "latest activity" Postings" and "about"

Maybe add another classification called "Supported Verses"

Here you can put verses you "support" or maybe it would be better to say "Verses where your commonly post in?" Dunno on the naming and description

But anyways

You put the verse you most frequent threads with. So anytime your in a thread that is "Tagged" wiht that verse. if you post in that thread you get "xp" to level up. Getting likes also helps level up by earning more xp

Have it something like

Supporters cap at level 10

Super Supporters cap at level 50

Ultra Supporters cap at level 100


Maybe also add a prestige system. Every time you "Reset" your progress it takes longer to level up.

My thoughts with this was to add a bit more fun with the wiki and increase wiki interactions perhaps

Though it sounded better in my head and dumb when written out...

Just an idea i guess...

---

My 2nd idea

Maybe do something a little more with the bagdes we get. On our own personal page on the wiki, have a separate wall for "badges"

random examples;


Have a badge titled" Veteran wiki member" and to obtain it "You must be apart of the wiki for 5 years or more."

Maybe also some log in bonus ones. And these badges can be displayed for other people on regular threads but to prevent it from getting to spam cap it at certain # say 4


Also maybe have a setting for other people to disable their display

---

My 3rd idea which is a bit more extreme

If the wiki is struggling and since were still far from our goal.

make it so new members when they join have to wait 3 months to get full forum access. Set character limits on threads, set a picture limit, set a reply limit per day, set a limit on links.

If they don't want to be hindered then for $1 usd per month they can get full access with no limits but still suffer ads lol

only hindered for 3 months*

---

4th idea...

perhaps introduce a special section of the forum for supporters only?

This section wouldn't have any advatanges over the others but this section would just have like

The top 10 "Hottest" threads on the forum? Or top 10 most viewed?

Dunno how good these ideas are. I knwo their probably not going to be to well liked. I love the forum and the wiki so im just tossing ideas out that might help...

 

[Agnaa]

1. Sounds prohibitively difficult to implement.
2. Sounds moderately difficult to implement, and also like it would do little in terms of support.
3. The possibility of a new member not being able to practically engage in a discussion because they're unwilling/unable to pay is bad enough for me to not want this suggestion implemented.
4. I don't think many people would be interested in this.

 

[Antvasima]

I agree with Agnaa. My apologies, Fujiwara.

 

[Antvasima]

@AKM sama @DontTalkDT @Ultima_Reality @DarkDragonMedeus @SomebodyData @Celestial_Pegasus @Wokistan @Andytrenom @Mr._Bambu @Elizhaa @Qawsedf234 @ByAsura @Sir_Ovens @Starter_Pack @Abstractions @LordGriffin1000 @Colonel_Krukov @SamanPatou @GyroNutz @Damage3245

Does the post linked below seem acceptable to you?

https://vsbattles.com/threads/our-community-needs-help-via-patreon-donations.137745/post-4864085

 

[Celestial_Pegasus]

I agree.

 

[Colonel_Krukov]

Don't personally like the idea of forcing staff members to evaluate a thread. It being pinned is okay though.

 

[SamanPatou]

Looks ok, and I don't think staff members will exaclty be forced to reply.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, I think that you will unfortunately have to take a bit of a bump for the sake of financing our community, as at least one staff member will have to evaluate each of the at most monthly requests from our deluxe members, but as long as said staff members remember to give a thumbs up/like to each request post that they have responded to already, it shouldn't be very taxing work spread out over 38 staff members, especially as I doubt that many members will become 20 USD supporters.

 

[Colonel_Krukov]

I think for the $20 option it can be changed to "1 pinned revision thread, 1 pinned vs thread, a prioritised calculation request, or a prioritised image render"

If it's possible to set a further expensive option, say $50, you can get one of each plus the other lower tier rewards?

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

Not sure about "Force bump" but proposals seem mostly fine.

 

[JohnConquest1]

I don't think prioritizing paid calculation requests is a good idea.

 

[Damage3245]

I think for the $20 option it can be changed to "1 pinned revision thread, 1 pinned vs thread, a prioritised calculation request, or a prioritised image render"

I can't think of this setting a good precedent for the forum going forwards. How are we supposed to enforce "prioritised calculation request" or "prioritised image render" in the first place?

 

[Colonel_Krukov]

I can't think of this setting a good precedent for the forum going forwards. How are we supposed to enforce "prioritised calculation request" or "prioritised image render" in the first place?

You can't, which is why I disagree with the proposal

 

[Confluctor]

Something I asked off site but didn't get an answer, so I will ask here, if the ROI is so bad on this site, why did we not go for a free forum site instead initially? Sure, design might have been... Well, not as good, and maybe it lacked few features here and there and maybe the URL wasn't as short as it is now, but at least it would have been free. And ofc most of the free forum sites have the almost the same features as this - like sending messages, threads, boards, etc.

 

[Antvasima]

Something I asked off site but didn't get an answer, so I will ask here, if the ROI is so bad on this site, why did we not go for a free forum site instead initially? Sure, design might have been... Well, not as good, and maybe it lacked few features here and there and maybe the URL wasn't as short as it is now, but at least it would have been free. And ofc most of the free forum sites have the almost the same features as this - like sending messages, threads, boards, etc.

We needed to move over our old forum discussion threads to a new forum and get sufficient functionality to make it work in practice afterwards. Also, XenForo is what Community Hired always uses to set up their forum services.

However, we currently have to pay for monthly hosting, Cloudflare, and system administrator costs.

 

[Antvasima]

Anyway, all that I am asking for is that we set up a new official wiki management forum thread that functions almost exactly like our calculation requests thread, but with the difference that somebody in our staff has to take a look at the requests posted there. However, I strongly doubt that more than 3-5 people would even sign up for the 20 USD Deluxe supporter subscription, and there are 38 staff members (administrators + thread moderators) to split the work between, so I don't think that it will be very demanding.

 

[Confluctor]

We needed to move over our old forum discussion threads to a new forum and get sufficient functionality to make it work in practice afterwards. Also, XenForo is what Community Hired always uses to set up their forum services.

However, we currently have to pay for monthly hosting, Cloudflare, and system administrator costs.

I know, but my question was, there tons of free alternatives which could be used. It does the same stuff like accounts, threads, boards, bans, reports, etc. All the stuff you essentially need for something like this.

 

[Antvasima]

Community Hired is thoroughly familiar with how forums work, and this was the best available alternative they knew about.

However, can we stick on topic and drop this part of the discussion please? It is not productive.

 

[DontTalkDT]

I updated the suggested benefits list for this.

I think that we could create a pinned wiki management forum request thread that is only available for Deluxe Supporters once a month, and only for evaluating threads that they created themselves.

Our administrators and thread moderators will have to subscribe to the request thread in question. They can give thumbs up to the request messages that have been responded to already.

Again, we have already lost 12,000 Euros during 2 years. We need to do what we can to at least break even so we do not have to eventually shut down.

I'm personally ok with those suggestions. Maybe we should exclude wiki standard revisions and the like, as I don't want to entertain a tiering system debate every few weeks.


Prioritised calc requests were brought up and I'm more sceptical regarding those. I think very often that would just get the answer "the feat is unquantifiable" or "we don't know how to quantify it properly" and that would just be... well, getting nothing. Not even a debate or anything.

 

[Antvasima]

I'm personally ok with those suggestions. Maybe we should exclude wiki standard revisions and the like, as I don't want to entertain a tiering system debate every few weeks.

Yes, that would be fine. I just had regular verse revision threads in mind. Thank you for the reply.

Prioritised calc requests were brought up and I'm more sceptical regarding those. I think very often that would just get the answer "the feat is unquantifiable" or "we don't know how to quantify it properly" and that would just be... well, getting nothing. Not even a debate or anything.

I think that our calc group is already working very hard and handle most calc requests on their own, but, if they are fine with it, maybe we could include asking for responses to calc group forum threads (for evaluating which calculation for the same feat that should be used) as well? I am not sure though.

 

[Mr._Bambu]

Given the situation... yeah. I can accept what's suggested. I'm also fine with making an express calc group eval request thread or something.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you for the support.

 

[ImmortalDread]

I have a suggestion for benefits:

I will assume first that this forum is using Xenforo (correct me if I am wrong)

— Access to the dark mode
— A custom user title
— Color Upgrades (Name color choice)
— Medals (if you donate for 1 year, you get a diamond-looking medal...etc)

 

[AKM sama]

2 USD/Month Supporters: No displayed advertisements.
5 USD/Month Super Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal animated user avatar images.

These are obviously fine.

10 USD/Month Ultra Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature.

A small image is fine. We can probably restrict the size so that it doesn't get spammy and take up the entire page.

20 USD/Month Deluxe Supporters: No displayed advertisements. Longer signature texts. Larger size for personal user images. A tastefully worded brief personal description text. A small inoffensive image included in one's signature. Making 1 request per month in a pinned wiki management forum request thread for guaranteed staff evaluations of content revision discussion threads, but only for threads that the Deluxe Members have created themselves, and only evaluated in a normal manner, not necessarily with any favourable outcomes.

1 thread per month per user is fine, I don't think we will get more than 5 of those threads in a month. And considering we have about 40 thread mods and admins it should not be any hassle. I mean, if a certain user really wants attention to their thread, they currently ping every staff member on their walls and somebody or the other usually responds. This shouldn't be any different. It will give that user ease of getting attention/evaluation from staff. But it should be made clear that the evaluation will be fair and not biased/supportive of the thread.

One more thing I would suggest here is to change the name. Supporter, Super Supporter, Ultra Supporter, Deluxe Supporter is fine. But I think names like "Bronze Tier Member", "Silver Tier", Gold, Platinum, Diamond or something like that can be better?

 

[InfiniteSped]

Not sure if you've posted it anywhere, but a breakdown of the costs could be good, like how much you're paying for servers, the system manager, anti-DDOS, stuff like that. So people are more likely to donate knowing what they money is being used for. My only experience with this kind of stuff is Lichess, and they do it like that.

 

[ImmortalDread]

One more thing I would suggest here is to change the name. Supporter, Super Supporter, Ultra Supporter, Deluxe Supporter is fine. But I think names like "Bronze Tier Member", "Silver Tier", Gold, Platinum, Diamond or something like that can be better?

No, I suggest premium Supporter, supreme Supporter, and Ultimate Supporter are better

 

[Antvasima]

I have a suggestion for benefits:

Thank you for trying to help out.

I will assume first that this forum is using Xenforo (correct me if I am wrong)

That is correct, yes.

— Access to the dark mode

All members here already have that access though.

— A custom user title

That was suggested previously, and seems fine to me.

— Color Upgrades (Name color choice)

Is that really necessary if the members already get badges and custom titles?

— Medals (if you donate for 1 year, you get a diamond-looking medal...etc)

That seems like a good idea.

Based on AKM's suggestions below, maybe we could keep my previous tier titles, but also give permanent bronze, silver, gold, and diamond medals for Supporters, Super Supporters, Ultra Supporters, and Deluxe Supporters who respectively donate for 1 year each?

These are obviously fine.

Thank you.

A small image is fine. We can probably restrict the size so that it doesn't get spammy and take up the entire page.

Okay. That is good then.

1 thread per month per user is fine, I don't think we will get more than 5 of those threads in a month. And considering we have about 40 thread mods and admins it should not be any hassle. I mean, if a certain user really wants attention to their thread, they currently ping every staff member on their walls and somebody or the other usually responds. This shouldn't be any different. It will give that user ease of getting attention/evaluation from staff. But it should be made clear that the evaluation will be fair and not biased/supportive of the thread.

Yes, agreed.

One more thing I would suggest here is to change the name. Supporter, Super Supporter, Ultra Supporter, Deluxe Supporter is fine. But I think names like "Bronze Tier Member", "Silver Tier", Gold, Platinum, Diamond or something like that can be better?

See my response earlier in this post for a mixed solution that I think seems good, but the titles obviously depend on what our staff as a whole think seems best.

 

[Antvasima]

Not sure if you've posted it anywhere, but a breakdown of the costs could be good, like how much you're paying for servers, the system manager, anti-DDOS, stuff like that. So people are more likely to donate knowing what they money is being used for. My only experience with this kind of stuff is Lichess, and they do it like that.

I do not think that our forum owner would accept making all of that completely public, but although the current costs are partially offset by our advertisements, this was not the case for over a year initially.

 

[ImmortalDread]

All members here already have that access though.

Just restrict the access to donators

Is that really necessary if the members already get badges and custom titles?

I mean, it's only a feature suggestion, so people can choose a primary color for their profile. I don't think it's a bad idea. Just restrict it for Super Supporter.

Also, one “small” suggestion/fix:

Change the banner on https://www.patreon.com/vsbattles. It looks awkward. Just use Photoshop and create a banner for it (I know it is not that important, but a little fix won't harm you at all.)

 

[Agnaa]

Is that really necessary if the members already get badges and custom titles?

If the colour of the person's actual name can be changed, rather than just the badges below the person's name, I think people would enjoy that quite a lot. I didn't consider that possibility, and think it's quite a good idea.

EDIT: It seems like the user meant a colour change for that profile. That also sounds less-than-certain to be possible since it might be built into the theme used, but would be a nice addition if it was.

Based on AKM's suggestions below, maybe we could keep my previous tier titles, but also give permanent bronze, silver, gold, and diamond medals for Supporters, Super Supporters, Ultra Supporters, and Deluxe Supporters who respectively donate for 1 year each?

I like this, but do have a slight concern about title bloat. I'd hope that only the highest one gets shown, so that if (for example) AKM donated at the top level for a year, he wouldn't end up with 9-12 titles.

 

[InfiniteSped]

I do not think that our forum owner would accept making all of that completely public, but although the current costs are partially offset by our advertisements, this was not the case for over a year initially.

Well, if you're asking the community to help pay, I think making the costs public is good transparency. I'd ask, at least.

 

[Antvasima]

Just restrict the access to donators

That seems unnecessarily miserly for such a basic feature.

I mean, it's only a feature suggestion, so people can choose a primary color for their profile. I don't think it's a bad idea. Just restrict it for Super Supporter.

Maybe, but weirdly coloured usernames can be rather annoying for others.

Also, one “small” suggestion/fix:

Change the banner on https://www.patreon.com/vsbattles. It looks awkward. Just use Photoshop and create a banner for it (I know it is not that important, but a little fix won't harm you at all.)

Good idea.

Would this one work?

 

[ImmortalDread]

Is that really necessary if the members already get badges and custom titles?

If the color of the person's actual name can be changed, rather than just the badges below the person's name, I think people would enjoy that quite a lot. I didn't consider that possibility and think it's quite a good idea.

EDIT: It seems like the user meant a colour change for that profile. That also sounds less-than-certain to be possible since it might be built into the theme used, but would be a nice addition if it was.

I am actually meant like this:


Example click here

@Antvasima ^^

 

[Antvasima]

If the colour of the person's actual name can be changed, rather than just the badges below the person's name, I think people would enjoy that quite a lot. I didn't consider that possibility, and think it's quite a good idea.

Okay. Maybe we can apply that, but I doubt that it is possible.

EDIT: It seems like the user meant a colour change for that profile. That also sounds less-than-certain to be possible since it might be built into the theme used, but would be a nice addition if it was.

Okay.

I like this, but do have a slight concern about title bloat. I'd hope that only the highest one gets shown, so that if (for example) AKM donated at the top level for a year, he wouldn't end up with 9-12 titles.

Well, we would add them manually, so that should not be a problem.

Well, if you're asking the community to help pay, I think making the costs public is good transparency. I'd ask, at least.

I can ask, yes, but I doubt that he will accept it.

 

[ImmortalDread]

Would this one work?
View attachment 274

Yap, this works as well

Maybe, but weirdly coloured usernames can be rather annoying for others.

I mean, you can let people choose colors that are available (5/10 suggested colors). Annoying is just subjective, right now.

That seems unnecessarily miserly for such a basic feature.

I mean in most forum communities, they are always restricted to donators/subscribers, I won't consider it as a normal basic feature. But your own decision.

 

[Antvasima]

I am actually meant like this:

Example click here

I suppose that is fine, but I don't know if it is possible.

 

[ImmortalDread]

I suppose that is fine, but I don't know if it is possible.

Who is the developer of the site (I am sure it's possible in Xenforo)

 

[Antvasima]

Yap, this works as well

Okay. I will check to see if I can replace the current image.

I mean, you can let people choose colors that are available (5/10 suggested colors). Annoying is just subjective, right now.

Okay. That seems fine to me.

I mean in most forum communities, they are always restricted to donators/subscribers, I won't consider it as a normal basic feature. But your own decision.

Okay, but here we would take something away from our members, rather than give them something new. That would likely spread toxicity and cause some of them to quit.

 

[Antvasima]

Who is the developer of the site (I am sure it's possible in Xenforo)

Our paid system administrator is handling the programming, but he doesn't have the time to chat with members, so he probably does not want me to link to his account here.

 

[Antvasima]

@AKM sama

@Edwellken needs an Ultra Supporter membership, and @Oloserian needs a Super Supporter membership.

Major big thanks to both of you for helping us out. You and all of our other supporters are awesome.

 

[ImmortalDread]

Our paid system administrator is handling the programming, but he doesn't have the time to chat with members, so he probably does not want me to link to his account here.

I actually don't want to chat with him. Just suggest him the idea and I am sure he can implement it

Okay, but here we would take something away from our members, rather than give them something new. That would likely spread toxicity and cause some of them to quit.

great point. Alright, I have another suggestion(s):
— people often use posts and write down “bump” to bump their own threads. What about adding the feature for “auto-bumper”, yes the feature exists.
— Allowing donators using BBCodes (Better post formatting)
— Lock and unlock your own threads

 

[Agnaa]

people often use posts and write down “bump” to bump their own threads. What about adding the feature for “auto-bumper”, yes the feature exists.

This feels like a bit of a toss-up for me. If the feature can be configured so that it won't bump if someone has posted in the thread in the last N amount of hours, it would be great. I just wouldn't want someone forgetting to leave it on, and having useless "bump"s interrupt a continuing discussion.

Allowing donators using BBCodes (Better post formatting)

I don't quite know what this entails, so I can't fully comment.

Lock and unlock your own threads

This one seems concerning on both ends. The possibility of the thread's creator deciding to shut down debate, even if that's not warranted, is not very good. And the possibility of them re-opening a thread that the mods have decided has run its course is also not very good.

 

[Antvasima]

I actually don't want to chat with him. Just suggest him the idea and I am sure he can implement it

We will most likely do so later.

great point. Alright, I have another suggestion(s):
— people often use posts and write down “bump” to bump their own threads. What about adding the feature for “auto-bumper”, yes the feature exists.

That would turn way too annoying for other members who subscribe to the bumped threads.

— Allowing donators using BBCodes (Better post formatting)

All members can use BBCodes to a degree. We even have an instruction page for how to do so.

— Lock and unlock your own threads

That would likely cause organisation problems for our staff.